Graduate student attempts to find time to knit and to spin and to have a life and to go to school and ...
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Monday, 29 October 2012

Catching up

Long time no post - well not really given my track record but longer than I'd like. I visited my mom in Kelowna before she left for Italy for 2 months (to visit family) so that threw a monkey wrench in the posting - well that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Here's a few photos that I've taken in the last few weeks - I'll use them to catch up.

I finished my Jedi Mind Trick socks - love them - have loved most of the patterns and all of the yarns this year in the CookieA club. I'm 90% certain I'll sign up for the club again - my only issue is that it takes so long to knit socks that if I wanted to knit all the socks in the club I'd knit little else through the year. And I'd like to knit a few sweaters - it makes sense given the climate I live in. I'm a little torn. I think I'll sign up again and delay my decision for a year. I've knit 3 out of the 5 sets of patterns - so 3 out of 10 patterns but still 3 from 5 shipments. I think that's pretty good - right? right!

In Kelowna I visited with mom and my canine brother - Zeke. He's a love but he smells a little like a dog and likes to steal my seat. He's a beautiful, chubby, pure bred beagle.

While in Kelowna I knit most of a pair of after thought stripey socks - love stripey sock yarn - these would be done but I had a lot left over so I ripped out the cuff and am knitting them taller. The cuff was annoyingly short. Socks would go so much faster, I'm sure, if I didn't rip out bind offs. The yarn is Canon Hand Dyed - Charles base (I think) in the colourway, In Mine Eye She is the Sweetest Lady. It is my entry for the AlphaKal that my LYS is holding. I've got until Oct 31st to complete them and I should make it.

And finally, we've really hit winter weather here in Calgary. I've got to be honest - winter is my favourite season. I don't mind the cold, and I love how the world looks with snow all over. I like that I can add layers and be warm and snug - whereas in the summer there are only so many layers that you can take off in public. Plus we don't have air conditioning or windows we can open to create a through breeze. I also like watching hockey (though with the strike we're watching a lot more NFL and so I'm starting to understand football and therefore liking it more). I also like how winter makes my hobby really useful and there is a lot of time in which to use hand knits. It has been knit sock weather for quite awhile here - LOVE IT! What I don't like is driving in winter conditions - or taking transit when roads are bad. Transit has already been disrupted 2-3 times this season and that is a lot given how many weeks of winter we've had. It doesn't bode well for the rest of the winter.